FEDS Protection for Federal LEOs

FEDS Protection provides coverage in three areas – administrative, civil and criminal. Below is a general overview of coverage. If you are looking for more specific information about your exposures, please contact us. It is important to understand that this is an insurance policy and you must have FEDS Protection in place prior to knowledge of an incident that could result in a claim – or coverage will be denied.

Coverage Overview:

FEDS Protection provides you with defense (your own personal attorney) and indemnification (pays damages) if you are facing a Bivens action or sued in your personal capacity for an act, error or omission arising out of your duties. These lawsuits usually involve an alleged 1st, 4th, 5th or 8th Amendment violation – or some other constitutional tort arising out of an enforcement action. FEDS will not wait for a DOJ determination to advise you. In fact, FEDS may hire coverage counsel prior to a determination.

FEDS Protection provides you with your own personal attorney for any administrative investigation resulting from an alleged act, error, or omission arising out of your professional duties. This applies to any administrative investigation including but not limited to OIG, OPR, RMO, Office of Inspection, Congressional, and agency directed investigations as well as disciplinary actions. This includes agency level administrative matters, internal affairs investigations, adverse actions, whistleblower retaliation, DOJ "scoping" issues, etc. Your own personal attorney, through the policy, would prepare and defend against inquiries/allegations; prepare and defend against OIG or agency administration or investigation processes; attend the investigative interview with you; and defend you in any resulting disciplinary action (both at the agency level and at the MSPB). Allegations against law enforcement officers run the gamut from negligence performance, to operational errors, to allegations of abuses of authority or position, to ethical allegations. For managers and supervisors, this also includes allegations of harassment, discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination.

FEDS Protection provides legal defense for any criminal investigation or proceeding into any act, error, or omission arising out of the course and scope of your employment. Some of the most common criminal investigations involving law enforcement officers are allegations of misuse of position or abuse of authority.

For pre-complaint and other non-covered employment related matters, all FEDS members are entitled to two half hour consultations with an attorney at no additional cost.

It is important to understand that you will be held accountable for even the most trivial or justifiable misuse or abuse of authority or violation of agency policy as the result of an allegation. The incredible amount of attention and scrutiny upon federal law enforcement officers have led to complaints and allegations of wrongdoing and whether true or false, and whether exacerbated by special interest groups, media attention or political agendas, if you don’t have FEDS Protection in place, the cost to defend your decisions, actions or inactions could be cost prohibitive – even if you are ultimately vindicated.

FEDS Protection has a very solid reputation for doing right by federal employees and is recommended by FLEOA, WIFLE and other leading federal law enforcement associations due to the quality of legal representation you get as well as the coverage and customer service provided.

You must have FEDS Protection in place prior to knowledge of an incident that could result in a claim – or coverage will be denied. Coverage is available for $290 per year or $145 after agency reimbursement – and payroll deduction is available.

Subscribe!

This Week on FEDtalk

Tune in to FEDtalk this week for a discussion on the importance of cybersecurity within the federal government. As the federal government becomes increasingly digital, it also becomes increasingly at risk for cyberattacks. Experts in the cybersecurity community will discuss what these threats look like and how the federal workforce can prepare for them.

Hear it from FLEOA

Nathan Catura, President of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), the nation’s largest non-partisan, not-for-profit professional association representing more than 27,000 federal law enforcement officers and agents across 65 federal agencies, today issued the following statement in support of the EAGLES Act.